As a person who has been a foreign trade entrepreneur for more than 7 years, I have also interviewed thousands of foreign trade salesmen. I found that many salesmen grew slowly, which was related to the deviation of the understanding of foreign trade salesmen.
At the same time, many enterprises are not satisfied with employees, and a large part of the reason is that enterprises do not put forward clear requirements for employees, so that foreign trade salesmen do not know what skills they should cultivate and what aspects of knowledge to learn. Employees and business owners are aggrieved.
Next, I will talk about this issue in combination with the actual work of the enterprise and the performance of the foreign trade salesman.
My answer consists of three parts:
1. The basic knowledge to be mastered by foreign trade salesmen
2. The basic skills that foreign trade salesmen should have
3. The basic qualities that foreign trade salesmen should cultivate
First, the basic knowledge to be mastered by foreign trade salesmen
As a foreign trade salesman, you should have the following 7 aspects of basic knowledge
1. Computer knowledge
Computer knowledge, mainly computer operating systems, office software, office equipment such as printers and other knowledge.
These aspects of knowledge, if not computer students, may not have been systematically studied, but this does not matter, for foreign trade salesmen, master the basic can be. For common computer failures, operating system optimization, computer transfer, printing and copying, office, etc. will be able to do.
If not, learn it as soon as possible after entering the enterprise. Why is that because I once hired an interprofessional girl who was majoring in chemical engineering, and I thought her communication and English skills were ok, so I recruited her.
In the process of training, I found that she was not familiar with excel, word, etc., and the basic things in this area required me to spend a period of training. The cost to the business is high.
There is also a computer failure, sometimes the company's computer will have some inexplicable small glitches, some salesmen seem to be overwhelmed, in fact, are some small problems, if others help you solve, you must remember, next time on their own solution.
2. Internet knowledge
Internet knowledge, this needless to say, the domestic to be proficient in Baidu, foreign to be proficient in Google, Bing and so on. Be familiar with whatspp, facebook, ins, pins, etc. Know what they do and how they are used. Needless to say, search engines are often used to master the common syntax of accurate searches, such as +, site、-、 "", and the use of file.
3. E-commerce knowledge
Now doing foreign trade, basically have opened e-commerce platforms. The B-side generally has an Ali station, and the C-end may have Amazon, AliExpress and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to master this e-commerce knowledge.
If you have not been in contact with e-commerce partners, what to do, you can ask the company's predecessors for advice, and then you can go into the background operation yourself. But when operating, you must know the principle behind it, so that you can learn to understand. For example, product release, first of all, you need to know the platform's product collation, the principle of inquiry, the vulnerability model of exposure click feedback, etc.
Only by understanding the principle behind the operation can you deeply master the operation of e-commerce.
4. Foreign trade knowledge
Foreign trade knowledge, common international logistics, payment methods, foreign trade terms, documents, letters of credit, foreign exchange settlement, contracts, foreign customers' religious habits, beliefs, ethnic characteristics, etc.
These knowledge is generally learned more by the small partners of the international trade major, and the small partners of the English major and the e-commerce major are less contacted. This knowledge can be quickly accessible on the job.
5. Product knowledge
Product knowledge, this is the foundation of the foundation, after entering the company, to quickly learn product-related knowledge, different products, have the parameters and attributes, must be proficient. If when you chat with a customer, the customer says a parameter that you don't know what it is, it will be trouble.
On the other hand, be very proficient in the places that customers often ask. For example, in the field of clothing, the most talked to customers is the style, fabric, size, style, accessories. It is necessary to understand the special requirements of customers in different countries for these attributes.
6. Industry knowledge
Industry knowledge, which is higher than the knowledge of the product again and again. For example, if you are doing suits or shirts, then you must understand the entire suit industry chain, the shirt industry chain at least, and then expand the men's wear industry, and then expand is the entire clothing industry. The more you understand the industry, the more profound you will be able to understand the needs of customers, and the more you can look at customer needs from a higher dimension when chatting with customers. This is the basic skill of doing sales.
7. Transnational cultural knowledge
Different countries have their own religious beliefs, ethnic habits, holidays, jet lag, aesthetics, taboos, etc. These are all to know, otherwise it is easy to offend customers when communicating.
So where does the knowledge go? You can search online, if you are too lazy to search, you can care about my number: super brother e-commerce diary, I put overseas customers' religious beliefs, language distribution, ethnic habits are sorted out a data package.
Second, the basic skills that foreign trade salesmen should have
1. Foreign language skills
The regular one is English, which is the most widely spoken language. If you speak a small language, then developing customers in the local country will have an advantage and will be particularly valued in the company. Anyway, I really appreciate the small partner who understands both English and is proficient in small languages, but I have not met, otherwise I will arrange a small language country to let her focus on development, otherwise wouldn't it be overkill? Ha ha
Note that foreign trade salesmen usually speak weaker, so after entering the company, be sure to practice their spoken language more. How to practice it? It's very simple, communicate with customers in spoken language, and now Skype and WhatsApp can be voice calls. The foreign language is a thing that is to practice more.
2. Marketing skills
Marketing skills include customer demand insights, market analysis, writing promotional copywriting, posting on platforms such as faceboo, LinkedIn and so on.
Note that marketing skills are not sales skills. Marketing skills are more in creating "potential", in the planning, promotion level.
Good marketing can play the role of four or two pounds. People who can market must be people who can sell, but people who can sell are not necessarily people who understand marketing.
3. E-commerce operation skills
It is the practice of major e-commerce platforms, common product release and optimization, store decoration, short video production, live broadcast, art retouching, inquiry processing, etc.
These are easy to get started when you enter the company, if someone brings them.
4. Sales negotiation skills
The core skill of the foreign trade salesman is sales. Efforts need to be made in this regard. One of the main indicators for assessing foreign trade salesmen is sales performance.
Therefore, foreign trade salesmen should pay special attention to and improve their sales skills and negotiation skills.
I found that many foreign trade salesmen often need a long time to grow into an excellent salesman.
The reasons inside this, I think, are mainly professional reasons. Many foreign trade salesmen generally study English majors and international trade majors, but these majors are often not sales directions, and there is no systematic learning such as consumer behavior, advertising, marketing, cross-border e-commerce and other sales courses. So on the one hand, there is a lack of professional knowledge, and on the other hand, there is less experience in practice and internship. So it takes time to grow.
If you only teach them methods and skills when training foreign trade salesmen, without explaining the sales principles behind them, they often cannot really understand, or use them thoroughly, and understand them slowly. This is a little bit of my experience when training salesmen.
5. Communication skills
Communication skills, this is the lowest skill of foreign trade salesmen. It is necessary to pass the level.
However, I found that many foreign trade salesmen are far from qualified in communication, which is manifested in:
Internal communication: communication with colleagues, lack of necessary collaboration, poor communication, inaccurate and untimely information transmission. Especially in cross-departmental communication. Communication with superiors, lack of due instructions and reports, many things depend on the need, waiting for the leader to arrange, the initiative is not enough. Some have an introverted personality and do not like to communicate. These are fatal to foreign trade salesmen.
To grow into an excellent foreign trade salesman, you need to be proactive in communication, and you need to take the initiative to promote and promote the completion of orders, rather than complaining.
Customer communication: communication is not timely, the understanding of customer requirements is not in place, there is no patience, lack of sufficient empathy, and will not empathize. These can hinder the fulfillment of orders.
A foreign trade salesman with weak communication skills is almost difficult to negotiate an order. Customers choose to work with the company, first of all based on the fact that the salesman is reliable and trustworthy. To win the trust of customers, it is necessary for foreign trade salesmen to communicate with customers and let customers understand the company.
Third, foreign trade salesmen should cultivate the basic qualities
1. Confidence
Foreign trade salesmen in front of customers, to be confident enough, believe in themselves, believe in their own company, believe in the company's products. This confidence is based on full familiarity with the company, products, and industries. Therefore, the foreign trade salesman should be more familiar with business knowledge, familiar with the knowledge of the industry, and understand his customers more than customers, so that customers will really admire you and trust you.
A confident person, the customer dares to rest assured that the order will be handed over to you. If for the requirements mentioned by the customer, you swallow, what dare to guarantee and determine, then the customer will be worried, do not dare to give you the order to do.
2. Diligence
Foreign trade salesmen are essentially sales jobs. Sales work, can not be like the administrative class, nine to five in the morning is not enough. Legs are required. Now the foreign trade market, the competition is very fierce, customers can choose a lot of suppliers, so do not have the concept of holidays, if the customer finds you, to reply to each other at the fastest speed.
Usually to develop more customers, more accumulation of customers, only with a large number of customer accumulation, will precipitate the intention of customers, there will be the possibility of transactions, so as to form a return to the order of customers.
Therefore, if a foreign trade salesman thinks about what time to leave work all day and rest on holidays, then this position is not suitable for you.
3. Willing to communicate
As mentioned earlier, communication is a skill, and it is also the basic quality of foreign trade salesmen. Here the emphasis is on being willing to communicate, and being willing to communicate means that you should like to communicate and love to communicate with people in your heart.
I found that although some foreign trade salesmen have been doing a good job for some years, on the whole, they are still a person who does not like to communicate, which may be due to personality. Although it may also be possible to close some orders, if you want to make a big achievement and become a sales champion, it must be a person who is willing to communicate, communicate with colleagues in the company, communicate with customers, communicate with leaders, and communicate with subordinates. Only in this way can you become a real foreign trade master.
4. Keen awareness
To be a foreign trade salesman, you need to have a strong sense of awareness. Especially the judgment of business opportunities and the timing of order transactions.
Excellent masters can always judge in the shortest possible time whether this customer can place an order, and how many orders they have placed. In the timing of the transaction, it is not too early to urge, to avoid causing customer disgust, but also not to miss the fighter, seize the opportunity to kick the door.
This kind of literacy needs to be slowly cultivated in the process of doing sales.
For the control of the timing of the order, the general inexperienced salesman has two extreme performances:
One is to be too hasty. As we all know, no trust does not close. Only if you have established enough trust with the customer will the customer give you the order. But some salesmen, obviously too hasty, customers do not know much about your company, do not have much trust in you, and began to hurriedly ask customers when to do samples, when to pay. It was very bad communication.
The other is that you don't kick in the door. This is obviously the customer has expressed the hope of closing the deal, you have not yet figured it out, and still ask this and that, Rory bar. I don't know how to send PI to customers directly and send collection accounts. It looks like it's a real rush. The customer obviously implies that you are going to close the deal, you have to strike decisively, tell the customer how to pay, this is called tacit understanding. If you wait until the customer comes and asks you how you can pay, then your communication will be too failed. So this kind of awareness needs to be cultivated as soon as possible.
5. Persistence
To do a B-class business, it takes a process to build trust, the delivery of orders takes time, and it takes a while to return orders. Different industries, the return cycle is not the same, such as the wig industry, the electronic product industry, may be a year customers can return 5, 6 times a single, but the suit industry, one year to more than two orders.
Therefore, this requires salesmen to know how to persist. New customers from the development to the final transaction, return orders, generally take several months, some even take a year or two. If there is no spirit of persistence, casually give up, it is difficult to make performance.
Many customers will place too much money for the first time, generally hundreds of thousands, and wait until the second or third order, the customer gradually trusts you, and will place millions and tens of millions of orders for you. If you don't stick to it, where will there be a time to blossom and bear fruit?
6. Empathy
Empathy is to be good at understanding the customer's worries and worries. In the B business, some of our customers are wholesalers, some are brand retailers, they are not consumers, they need to sell their products to get back the funds.
So, understand their concerns about sales, their worries about the market. Help customers think of ways, come up with ideas, treat customers as friends, and customers will truly thank you. So will it be harder for you to get an order?
Well, the above is the basic knowledge, basic skills and basic literacy that need to be possessed as foreign trade. Whether it is a novice foreign trade salesman or a foreign trade old bird, you need to improve yourself more and improve yourself comprehensively in order to become an excellent foreign trader. Talent to excel and stand out from the crowd.
These are my combination of entrepreneurial experience, observation of the phenomenon of summary, like friends remember to point a thumbs up, everyone has any questions, you can leave a message below.